How Can We Control Our Thoughts in Meditation?
A talk in English, with a summary.
Talk in English · 13 min · 3 June 2023 · How can we control our thoughts during meditation?
Summary
A working professional asks: after a long day, thoughts about yesterday and tomorrow keep coming in meditation — how can they be controlled? Yogi Shri calls it a universal question and answers with an analogy.
If a fan is running at full speed, you don’t stop it with your hand or a stick: either you are hurt or the fan is damaged. That, he says, is the basic mistake meditators make. Trying to stop the mind by force damages either the mind or the will, and people give up regular practice. An intelligent person looks for the switch — the source of energy that keeps the fan turning. The mind’s job is to think and to protect you; it keeps running because it has been given energy.
So the method is not to stop the mind but to change the direction of energy. In yogic terms, breathing in is apana, nourishing and drawing energy in; breathing out is prana. When prana and apana meet and merge, a different circuit forms, and the mind comes to rest by itself — as a result, not as something forced. Give the mind a little time: even after the supply is cut, it runs on for a while.
Key points
- Forcing the mind to stop damages the mind or the will.
- Look for the source of energy, not the moving part.
- The mind’s work is to think and protect; it runs while supplied.
- Change the flow of energy through prana and apana; stillness follows.